We're back at May's Coffee Shop in Japantown. The kids pose in the sillhoutes provided: samurai and geisha.

Isaac poses with his doll in front of a Christmas tree. I love it when he directs what photos ought to be taken.

Saturday 14 January 2006

The kids awoke talking about the need to make home-made pancakes. We've diviided the tasks so that Isaac is "dry boy" and Lila is "wet girl". Then the bowl contents are mixed and Rose and I cook 'em all up. Mmmmmm.

Friday 13 January 2006

Macworld ends today, and Ranger Lefty and I share a bit more time. This is the best of the phone-cam self-portraits, and that's not saying much.

Thursday 12 January 2006

More Macworld. A bright sunny day.

Comcast returns to actually install hardware. The installer really has a clue, making things easy. Yea! It works.

Wednesday 11 January 2006

More Macworld. A day of heavy mist (but not really rain). Really typical weather for the show.

Macwold opens. Steve Jobs does his keynote. For some strange reason they're not streaming it live this year, so I sit in on a live ICQ session. Lots of fun.

Later on I head downtown to the show. I pass by the Apple Store, behind some steam rising through the cold air.

Immediately after the keynote the newest advertising is unveiled on buses, in kiosks, and on billboards all over the city. "What's an Intel chip doing in a Mac? A whole lot more than it's ever done in a PC."

Here's a view from the show floor. That's Apple's huge space at left. The new Intel-based PowerBooks (errr, MacBooks) seem very nice. I'm going to have to pay for them dropping the PCMCIA slot and the FireWire 800 port, but not too much. Something 4-6 times faster is worth it.

Here's the entire panorama of the Apple show space.

Ranger Lefty and I have lunch at the Café MOMA, around the corner. We spot an advertisment for MUNI buses with WiFi. When did this happen? Too cool!

Before we leave the show floor Ranger Lefty finds the right person to field some printer questions. Despite the Internet, sometimes face-to-face time is worthwhile.

Pretty much the first thing taught to new programmers, well to any kind of scientist, is to vary only one thing when trying to solve a problem. I know this, and nonetheless this week I'm changing a whole bunch of things. I can't see the other side (at this point).

The list of things being changed this week include

switching ISPs from a small, local, ISP to a nationwide, soul-less, mega-corporation

switching connection from DSL (1.5 Mbits/384) to cable (6 Mbps/)

switching hardware from a vanilla hub to a WiFi NAT router

switching my domain from where it's been for a decade (Network Solutions) to a registrar with a much better reputation and a much cheaper hosting package (1and1)

I run over to the SFO International terminal to hand Felicia a small package for Omi Marga. She's heading over to Italy for business and will visit Münster on her way back home.

We head over to Fisherman's Wharf to enjoy an open house on the National Liberty Ship Memorial -- SS Jeremiah O'Brien. Luckily we get a perfectly clear, cold day. We range all over the ship, enjoying the engine room (!) and the master's quarters, but the guns end our day.

Here's Isaac taking his turn aiming the guns at the skyline.

Lila is sitting on the other side, adjusting the elevation. No rounds were fired.

Why is Lila kvelling? I have no idea. She really wanted this photo taken, so here it is, my darling.

Post-school arts-and-crafts time. The unused beads have to be bagged or they'll wind up fodder for the vacuum cleaner.

Tuesday 3 January 2006

Today I start a new contract, downtown, at Scyld (a part of Penguin Computing). Think Linux Beowulf clusters. More details will appear on the résumé as accomplishments happen.

Monday 2 January 2006

Friends invite us to join them at the Exploratorium, on their family membership. It's a rainy day, so this seems like a grand idea.

Unfortunately, it's more rain than the Exploratorium staff can handle. We get to the parking lot right as it's supposed to open up, and nobody's there. Seriously. I have no idea why a bit of rain closed down the place, but it's pretty unimpressive.

Everyone heads down to the temporary location of the California Acadamy of Sciences, for a really great time. Yow!

Sunday 1 January 2006

It's New Years Day, and we're going to celebrate by walking across the Golden Gate Bridge with Ed and company. We're to be there at noon, sharp, and we are. Here's the flagpole at the south end of the bridge; our rendezvous point.

Here's our family photo, and I'm quite pleased with it. I like to have something to share, something with a local geographic landmark in the background. The kids seem so big to me.

Here's the middle-of-the-bridge sillyness photo. We were having a goofy time, and although we brought the double stroller Mom gave us Isaac desperately needed to ride on my shoulders.

Since the last time we were at the bridge there have been some high-profile suicides, including number 1000, and one result are these signs (and telephones) placed on both sides and near the middle.

At the end of the day we head out to Union Square to celebrate the lighting of the menorah for the last night of Chanukah. Rabbi Yosef Langer of Chabad led the event, as usual; a welcome and refreshing presence in our lives.

Unfortunately the weather, which had kept inclement ugliness away, surrendered with a vengence. Cold, driving rain pelted the small crowd. Candle-lighting was abandoned as the strong breezes kicked up. It was an open question whether they could light the thing after all. Well, you know how this ends: of course it was lit. That's the whole point, isn't it?

Back at the house the kids lighted their own menorahs, and we brought Chanukah to a close. We'll miss you, Festival of Lights (and harbringer of birthdays).